There was the sound of movement in the trees above. The leopard, running away.
He turned back to me, his sword still drawn. “You’re too petite to make a very useful shield.”
I scoffed, trying to pretend my hands weren’t shaking as I slid the cloak off my shoulders. It was so heavy. I tried to give his cloak back, holding it out to him.
“If you want to be out here with me, you should wear it.”
“I won’t move very quickly with it on,” I disagreed. “What is it, magic?’
“It’s a very useful cloak. And you don’t have to move quickly.” His eyes seemed to shine in the dark like the cat’s. His night vision was much sharper than mine, just as his hearing and other senses seemed to be sharper. “I’ll protect you.”
Those words sent warmth rushing through my chest. “You do make a habit of protecting mortals.”
“Well. I brought you into the forest. It’s only fair.”
It’s sweet that he was taking responsibility, because I basically forced myself on them. I hadn’t heard one person declare, “Oh, Cara, the dragon shifters desperately need your help.”
Fieran held his hand out to me. “Come on. We’ve fallen behind the others.”
I nodded and went along with him, but I didn’t take his hand. He smiled at me anyway, seemingly unoffended, and rested his hand lightly on the hilt of the long knife he wore at his belt.
We kept making our way through the forest. I felt a little awestruck by its beauty, and I thought about how if I weren’t alongside Fieran, I could have lived my entire life without seeing the night forest and its beauty. The leopard sighting had reassured me that we had good reasons for staying out of the forest, but it also felt like a loss.
I tried to memorize everything I saw, knowing I would never come out to the forest again at night when I would have to come alone. I only had the chance to see this once, because of them.
Because of Fieran.
The thought made me feel a swell of gratitude.
He paused me with a hand on my shoulder.
I froze instantly, only my eyes moving, tracking back and forth and searching for the danger.
“It’s all right. It’s not something bad. I just saw something that I don’t—” His hands settled on my waist, drawing me with him. “If that’s what I think it is, I’ve only seen one once before.”
We moved through the softening of the darkness ahead of us, as if there were a lantern ahead of us. And then, as we neared it, I could see the shaft of light that stretched to the sky.
“It’s a wishflower,” I said, feeling stunned to realize that a bit of fantasy from my childhood could come true. I seized his arm. “Fieran, you saw it first. Probably no one has ever seen it before. Make a wish.”
In fairy tales, only the very first person who ever saw a wishflower bloom got their wish.
As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I felt childish and silly. It had just been so surreal to see something that I’d only heard about in fairy tales and find out that it was indeed real.
“Claimyour wish,” Fieran told me.
The thing I wanted most, to find a way to save my sister’s magic and to save my brother’s life, pressed against my chest like it would choke me.
I felt a sudden sense of loss, opening up as if it would swallow me. Fieran had seen it first, of course. His eyes were keener. But why hadn’t I believed in the fairy tales? Why hadn’t I come out here, braving the leopards, and found the wishflower for myself?
I tried to remind myself that it was just pretend. There was no way that plants could grant wishes. Wishes were never granted. Wishes weremadereal in an alchemy of hard-won plans and dirty hands and bloody knuckles.
“I’m giving my wish to you,” Fieran said, sounding lighthearted.
The wishtree’s magic was pretend. And if it were real, there would be rules governing that magic, and he’d been the first to find it with his keen night vision. “That’s not how it works, Fieran.”
Whether or not magic could change our destinies, I needed to dig my destiny myself out of hard-packed earth.
“Are you the expert on magic now, little mortal?”
